1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a marine winch with a winch-line engaging roller, and more particularly the present invention is directed to a manual marine barge grooved drum winch with a wire rope engaging drive roller.
2. Background Information
The present invention relates to marine winches, such as produced by W. W. Patterson, Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pa. Non-powered marine winches, also called manual winches, are often used in barge environments due to the lack of available power in such environments. The manual winches are secured to the barge boat deck, such as through a pivot connection or through a welding of the winch housing to the deck. These types of manual barge winches require a sturdy, simple construction in order to effectively operate with minimal maintenance in a very harsh environment. The barge winches will typically be used to lash together barge trains for efficient transport along rivers. Barge trains will must be broken down and reassembled for locks and the like during river transport, such that easy winch operation is critical for transport efficiency.
Existing manual barge winches have a housing including a mechanism to secure the winch to the boat deck, such as weld seams or D-ring receiving member. Secured to the housing is a rotating drum. A winch-line, typically a wire rope, is wound onto and off of the drum to tension and to pay out the load on the winch. Winch-lines other than wire ropes have been proposed, including rope, chains, and even webbing in a recent introduction by W. W. Patterson, Inc. Winch lines formed of combinations of line types are also known, however, wire rope remains the most common winch-line to date. The drum is rotated by a manually actuated drum drive. Typically the drum drive includes a drum gear secured to and co-axial with the drum, with a pinion gear engaging and driving the drum gear. The pinion gear will be rotated through a hand wheel and/or a ratchet handle generally accessible by the operator from outside of the housing, typically on the side thereof. A selectively engaged ratchet-pawl tension holding unit is generally provided to hold the tension on the drum. Conventional ratchet-pawl holding unit has a pawl, also called a locking dog, that when the pawl is engaged it will be engaging a gear that is coupled to the drum drive, wherein the gear may be the drum gear, the pinion gear, or a separate tension holding gear. The pawl will allow rotation of the drum in the tensioning direction through a ratcheting action, but, when engaged, it will hold the tension of the drum (i.e. the winch will not payout). The pawl is disengaged to allow for releasing of tension from the drum, known as paying out the winch line. Brakes, such as hand brakes and foot brakes, have also been used to temporarily hold the tension when the locking dog is released for a more controlled payout of tension.
The present invention is primarily directed toward a manual marine barge winch having a grooved drum. A grooved drum in a manual marine barge winch refers to a winch-line drum having a helical groove thereon which receives the winch-line, typically a wire rope, therein. One recent proposal for such grooved drums is a series of spacer rods that extend parallel to the drum and are positioned circumferentially around the drum at a position spaced from the edge of the drum that allows enough space for the wire rope, wherein the spacer rods serve to hold the wire rope generally on the drum and in the drum groove, even when the tension on the winch is released. These proposed wire rope engaging spacers will, however, add another source of friction and wear on the winch-line.
The extremely high tension that the winch-lines are under in use and the danger presented when a winch-line fails makes the implementation of the proposed winch line engaging spacers very problematic. It would be beneficial if the advantages of maintaining the wire rope on the drum provided by the proposed circumferentially spaced winch line engaging spacers could be maintained without increasing friction or wear on the winch line, or at least minimizing the additional friction or wear added to the winch line.